Takeaway crash raider is jailed
Sharon Dean and Peter Smeatham taking a look at their damaged home.
A takeaway raider who sparked a 999 alarm that led to a police car smashing into a house has been jailed.
Lee Hocking, 24, burst inside Michelle’s Diner, in Sixth Street, Horden, where two members of staff were working, and grabbed the till.
As he fled, a police car responding to the theft veered off the road and crashed into a home in Eleventh Street, Horden.
Home owner Sharon Dean, 47, was sitting in her front room at the time and was left shocked by the smash.
The officer was rushed to hospital – but escaped injury.
Hocking was jailed for 28 weeks after magistrates heard he was already serving a suspended prison sentence when he carried out the snatch raid.
Hocking burst into Michelle’s Diner wearing a black woollen hat at around 2pm on May 22.
He smashed the cash drawer containing the day’s takings and rushed out of the shop, before escaping down an alley.
Peterlee magistrates heard how Hocking smashed the cash drawer and rushed out of the shop with the money after his daylight raid.
Police found the empty till drawer nearby and Hocking was arrested a short time later.
Michelle Crombie, 35, who runs the takeaway, said she was “gutted” by the theft.
Hocking, of Seventh Street, Horden, pleaded guilty to theft when he appeared at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court.
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Friday 24 May 2013
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